Information: Focus on 26 September Elections in Germany

• Germany always goes to polls every after 4 years.
• It is  not individuals that elect the chancellor of Germany.
• They are 299 constituencies that send individual representatives in the Bundestag.
• The Germany Bundestag is the lower house of parliament.
• Each voter has 2 votes on an election day 1st for an individual constituency candidate and the 2nd for a party-list in a particular state.
• The first vote is commonly termed as “Erststimme” where as the second vote is called “Zweitstimme.
• Each voter may cast one vote for one party’s list of a candidate in one of the 299 constituency’s and 1 vote for one party’s list of candidates in a particular state.
• One member is elected in each of the 299 constituencies in the federal territory and the candidate who gets the most constituency votes is directly elected to the Bundestag.
• Each party’s share of votes determines its portion of seats in parliament.
• The number of seats won directly by constituency MPs is deducted from the total number of seats allocated to a party according to the number of second votes received for that party’s list of candidates.
• Every German citizen above the age of 18years is eligible to vote.
• The upper house that has up to 709 members is voted according to the biggest percentage each political party gets in the vote.
• To build a government, a party needs the majority of seats if not reached they form a coalition which the representatives then use their majority to elect the chancellor.
• The president who always acts ceremonial moderates the vote of the chancellor post in the upper house.
• Political parties list with candidates are selected in party conferences and only a few top names are printed on the ballot.
• The ballot allows voters to split their vote amongst parties.
• Six political parties have so far been participating in elections majorly and they are on the forefront in these elections too.

Major Parties

Green party (green)

Social Democratic Party

Alternative for German (light blue)

Free Democratic Party (yellow)

Left Party (red)

Christian Democratic party/Christian Social Union (black).

Compiled by Abdul Kimera